ACU Avoids Sweep By UIW With 5-0 Win Sunday

ABILENE - One day after Case Rolen put together the best effort by an ACU starting pitcher this season in a 5-4 loss to Incarnate Word, Drew Hanson picked up where Rolen left off Sunday afternoon as he delivered seven innings of no-hit baseball in a 5-0 win over the Cardinals in the series finale at Crutcher Scott Field.

Hanson didn’t allow a hit until Sean Arnold drilled the first pitch of the eighth inning back up the middle for a single. After a popout, Hanson walked his seventh batter of the afternoon and he exited after 115 pitches to a nice ovation from the home crowd. Brandon Lambright cleaned up the final 1 2/3 innings to help ACU take the final game of the opening Southland Conference series of the season for both teams.

ACU is now 8-7 overall and 1-2 in league play, while UIW is 11-7 and 2-1. The Wildcats will be back in action Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. in Arlington when they take on UT-Arlington at Clay Gould Field. The Mavericks knocked off the Wildcats at ACU last Wednesday, 5-4.

KEY INNING

ACU and Incarnate Word were engaged in a scoreless duel through three innings before ACU finally got on the board in the fourth inning with a pair of runs. The key inning, however, might have been the top of the first when UIW loaded the bases on three walks - two with two outs - and appeared to have Hanson on the ropes early.

But the junior from Coppell struck out shortstop Bryce Shepherd swinging to get out of the inning, and UIW wouldn’t seriously threaten again until the eighth inning.

In the bottom of the fourth inning, Russell Crippen reached on an errors by UIW third baseman David Anaya and came home two pitches later when first baseman Koby Claborn yanked a pitch from John Shull over the wall in right-centerfield for his first home run as a Wildcat and a 2-0 ACU lead.

That was more than enough for Hanson, who retired 12 straight Cardinals from the end of the third inning through the end of the seventh before allowing the singled to Arnold to lead off the eighth.

AT THE PLATE

• Claborn drove in three runs on a pair of hits and scored one run, raising his average on the season to .373.

• Dalon Farkas was 3 for 4 with one RBI from the leadoff spot as he raised his average to .338.

• Luis Trevino - who saw his 13-game hitting streak to start the season snapped in Saturday’s loss - started a new one Sunday with an RBI double in the sixth inning, driving in Derek Scott.

• Scott was 0 for 3, but reached base on a fielder’s choice in the first and a walk in the sixth. Each time he reached base he stole second and third as he finished the day with four stolen bases, one off the school record for stolen bases in a game (5, set by Todd Thompson in 1992 and tied by Oscar Vargas in 2002).

ON THE MOUND

• Hanson threw 115 pitches and walked seven Cardinals, but allowed just the one hit and combined a shutout, ACU’s first shutout since May 14, 2016, when Aaron Mason and Nick Palacios combined on a 1-0 shutout win over Incarnate Word in San Antonio.

• Brandon Lambright finished up with 1 2/3 innings of hitless relief. Lambright struck out two batters to run his season total to 22 in just 15 innings of work (an average of 1.5 per inning and an average of 13.5 per nine innings).

NOTABLE

• After an 0-4 start to the season, 8-3 in its last 11 games.

• In those four losses to Michigan State that started the season, ACU’s team ERA was 11.25. In the 11 games since, the team ERA is 2.97.

• Michigan State hit .401 in the series in Abilene, but since then, ACU opponents are hitting just .220.

• ACU has outscored opponents 62-38 in the team’s last 11 games.

NEXT GAME

The Wildcats will be back in action Wednesday night when they travel to Arlington to take on UT-Arlington at Clay Gould Field. First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m., and the game can be heard on 98.1 FM The Ticket.

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